CARIBBEAN-RIGHTS- IACHR calls for progress in the recognition and protection of reproductive rights in the region

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WASHINGTON, CMC – The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) says. At the same time, it welcomed the progress in the region last year in exercising the reproductive rights of women, girls, adolescents, and all pregnant persons. It nonetheless calls on states to refrain from going backward in recognizing and protecting these rights.

The IACHR urges countries to guarantee the exercise of these rights free of violence and gender discrimination by their international obligations.

It said reproductive rights, which encompass certain human rights, have historically been limited, restricted, or otherwise denied based on harmful gender norms prioritizing the reproductive function of women, girls, adolescents, and pregnant persons over their human rights.

“This historical and structural discrimination is reflected in the violence fostered by laws that criminalize the voluntary interruption of pregnancy, limiting the legal, safe, and opportune options to do so.”

The inter-American system has recognized that the decision to have biological children constitutes an area of ​​private life related to other rights, such as the right to form a family, physical and mental integrity, and specifically reproductive rights.

“Such rights entail a series of obligations on the part of the state, such as due regulation and supervision of health services, access to information and technologies, the obligation for medical personnel to obtain informed consent for any treatment to be practiced, and the prohibition of disproportionate restrictions to exercise reproductive decisions.”

The IACHR said that as has already been specified by the Inter-American Court, it recalls that the protection of life from conception is not absolute but gradual and incremental, according to its development, in such a way that it allows an adequate balance with other rights that may conflict.

“In this way, the IACHR has reiterated that the absolute criminalization of abortion exposes women to dangerous and even deadly practices that put their health and lives at risk, especially those in poverty and greater vulnerability, who have a disproportionate impact on their rights.

“Furthermore, this negative impact is exacerbated in girls and adolescents, who, due to their gender and age condition, are more exposed to sexual violence, and for whom pregnancy represents a high health risk, as identified by the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO).”

IACHR said that forcing them to carry the pregnancy to term causes them physical and mental suffering, which constitutes gender-based violence and potentially amounts to torture or cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment.

The IACHR, a principal and autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS), said it considers adopting measures aimed at guaranteeing that women’s rights are not disproportionately affected through the absolute criminalization of the voluntary interruption of pregnancy constitutes positive advances in the region.

“Thus, the legislative and judicial advances observed that decriminalize the voluntary interruption of pregnancy within specific periods are highlighted in the Mexican states of Guerrero, Baja California Sur, and Quintana Roo and at the national level in Colombia.”

It said these advances are in line with the inter-American standards on access to abortion in cases of danger to the life or health of the pregnant person, of non-viability of the fetus, or when the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.

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